Gottex Fund Management has made two key legal appointments -- new General Counsel William Woolverton and Legal & Compliance Officer Alexis Kaiser.

Woolverton, who has been appointed General Counsel and Managing Director and will be based in Gottex's Boston office, joins the firm from Dechert LLP where he was a senior member of the Financial Services Group. A former colleague of one of Gottex's Senior Investment Partners, Richard Leibovitch, he was previously Managing Director and General Counsel at Putnam Investments where he worked from 1988 until 2004.

Prior to joining Putnam, Woolverton, who holds degrees from Amherst College, Kings College, Cambridge and Columbia University School of Law, was Senior Counsel at Alliance Capital Management and was an attorney at Clifford Chance Rogers and Wells.

Alexis Kaiser joins Gottex Legal and Compliance Officer from Avendis Capital. Prior to joining Avendis in 2002, he was a financial advisor in Corporate Finance at Credit Suisse Private Bank in Zurich and London. He holds a Masters in Business Law from the Sorbonne University and passed the Paris Bar exam in 1999. Kaiser also studied Economics and Corporate Finance at the University of St. Gall in Switzerland. He will be based in Gottex's Lausanne office.

"We are delighted to welcome both Bill and Alexis to Gottex," said Joachim Gottschalk, CEO of the Gottex Fund Management. "Hiring professionals of the highest calibre is vital to our continued success."

Background notes: Founded in 1992, the Gottex Fund Management Group specializes in absolute return strategies. With total funds under management in excess of USD 5 billion, Gottex offers a complete range of fund of hedge funds with specialization in conservative and market neutral funds. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland Gottex has offices in London, New York, Boston Hong Kong, and affiliate offices in Sydney and Montevideo.